According to research cited in the latest bulletin in OJJDP's Girls Study Group series, Causes and Correlates of Girls' Delinquency, girls who have experienced severe child abuse are more than seven times as likely as nonabused girls to be referred to the juvenile justice system for committing a violent act.

In the 1990s, a surge of girls' arrests brought female juvenile delinquency to the country's attention. By 2004, girls accounted for 30 percent of all juvenile arrests for violent offenses. The juvenile justice field struggled to understand why girls were becoming more involved in delinquency, how to prevent their delinquent behavior, and how best to respond to the needs of girls who were entering the system. Of particular interest was the question of whether girls were becoming more violent or if other factors contributed to their higher arrest rates.